Resilient cybersecurity solutions f… – Information Centre – Research & Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined, like under no circumstances right before, the worldwide economy’s increasing dependence on Data Systems (IT). Firms of all dimensions and across all sectors count on IT options to carry out day by day functions and interact with suppliers and buyers.

This suggests nonetheless that when cybersecurity incidents come about, important financial harm can be inflicted. Cyberattacks also undermine the rely on of citizens and enterprises in our burgeoning digital society.

“The on the web theft of professional trade techniques, small business data and personal details, and the disruption of products and services – all these incidents result in financial losses,” describes FORTIKA project coordinator Anastasios Drosou, senior researcher at the Centre for Exploration & Engineering Hellas (CERTH) in Greece. “The believed charge of cybercrime to the worldwide overall economy was noted to be far more than EUR 775 billion a yr. Cybersecurity threats can also have serious outcomes for citizens’ essential rights, this sort of as privateness.”

Sturdy cybersecurity tools

The FORTIKA project was released with the unique aim of assisting little and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to tackle this menace. Smaller firms are inclined to have constrained resources, and usually lack in-property experience. “We know that the vulnerability of a firm to cyberattacks is inversely proportional to their dimensions,” claims Drosou. “SMEs are usually improperly ready to defend by themselves and their digital property, and to secure their clients’ details and privateness.”

The project consortium set about developing tools exclusively for SME requirements. Cybersecurity products and services run by Synthetic Intelligence (AI) algorithms for instance have been produced to have out menace identification and mitigation. The project also evaluated the legal and ethical facets of cybersecurity protection and included these elements into their proposed technological options.

“The FORTIKA AI device for instance ‘watches’ a company’s community, identifies any threats and initiates countermeasures if wanted,” provides Drosou. “Services like this can be easily deployed via an very affordable hardware device called the FORTIKA Gateway, which is mounted by the SMEs by themselves.”

A crucial advantage of the Gateway device is that it implements a novel hardware-based engineering recognized as ‘Edge Acceleration’. Edge Acceleration exploits Edge Computing (i.e. computing accomplished at or near the supply of the details), enabling SMEs to accessibility significant levels of computing ability efficiently and affordably.

A Protection Data and Event Administration (SIEM) element has also been produced. This customisable and remarkably interactive visual interface presents end end users a helpful, easily easy to understand and extensive actual-time check out of their property, security standing and ongoing mitigation functions.

Cybersecurity marketplace

A different crucial success of the project has been the progress of an revolutionary platform. The FORTIKA marketplace, as it is called, presents SMEs accessibility to improvements produced both equally inside of the project and by third get-togethers. This just one-prevent store allows providers to research for, choose and obtain the cybersecurity options they have to have. “An aim of the FORTIKA marketplace is to orientate little small business end users towards reliable cybersecurity products and services,” claims Drosou.

“The marketplace is not just a suggests of finally promoting the cybersecurity tools that have been produced by the FORTIKA consortium. It is an open up platform, where a range of cybersecurity products and services can be marketed to SMEs around the globe. By offering SMEs accessibility to significant-degree cybersecurity at minimal charge, and with minimal effort and hard work, they will then be capable to concentrate their constrained resources on their core functions and thrive.”

Strengthening the resilience of little firms – which kind the backbone of Europe’s overall economy – also suggests offering some significantly-wanted assurance at a time of worldwide uncertainty. The eventual commercialisation of FORTIKA’s proposed options – and the launch of the marketplace – will also help to make new employment opportunities in the European cybersecurity industry and study fields.